'Investment climate yet to be gender friendly'

KATHMANDU, April 23: The lack of access to resources and services is hindering women´s participation in business in Nepal, a study carried out by Nepal Investment Climate Reform Program (NICRP) and the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs´ Associations of Nepal (FWEAN) has showed.



Presenting the key findings of the study on Gender and Investment Climate Reform Assessment amidst a program in the capital on Monday, FWEAN President Chhaya Sharma said low financial literacy was limiting the access of women to finance. [break]



The statistics shows that women form at most 5 percent of total borrowers of commercial bank.



“Getting micro credit is relatively easy, but access to larger loan is difficult,” Sharma said, adding that investment climate for women is still not friendly.



The findings state that the financial burden was, however, not a serious constraint compared to problems emanating from patriarchal culture, weak implementation of women friendly polices, lack of access to resources and services and others.



Speaking on the occasion, Laura Watson, senior private sector development specialist of INCRP, said women were facing unique challenges and that they should be addressed separately. “Most of the young men are going abroad and the women´s need to fully participate in the economy has become more essential.”



Secretary at the Prime Minister´s Office Leela Mani Paudel said women still have little access to formal lending although hardly any women are in the list of defaulters. Although the government has allocated fund of around Rs 90 million for Cottage and Small Scale Industry, women are not being able to utilize it, Paudel added. He requested women entrepreneurs to be more communicative with decision makers so that the problems can be understood.



Yuvaraj Bhusal, member of National Planning Commission, said that although number of women in service industry was increasing the participation was negligible in other sectors. He said that the association like FWEAN should not limit its program in the capital and should be able to incorporate women entrepreneurs all across the country.



Program Manager of NICRP Fred Zake stressed the need of providing opportunities to everyone irrespective of gender. He suggested the stakeholders to focus on action plan as the implementation has not been so forthcoming despite the existence of policies for women´s economic empowerment.

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